Imagining Argentina
Carlos Rueda is the main character in Imagining Argentina, a story set during Argentina’s politically unstable 70’s. When his beloved wife, Cecilia, a reporter, was abducted by the government Carlos became overcome with grief. In his time of great despair he discovered a mysterious, magical gift. In waking dreams he had clear visions of the fates of those, like his wife, who had also disappeared. Carlos’ main focus and goal throughout the story was to rescue her. His gift of inconceivable imagination was his only weapon in his quest to find Cecilia. He knew that somehow his gift would deliver his wife, but to keep it he had to use it to help others. When Carlos found a way to place his gift among the city’s people his great quest began.
The day of Carlos’ first “dream” he had gone to comfort Enrico, a boy in the play he was directing at the Children’s theater where he worked. Enrico told Carlos that his father had been taken from heir home by strange men. Suddenly Carlos saw images in his head, and asked Enrico what to tell him what had happened to his father. When Enrico was done Carlos was able to tell him exactly how his father would be released that night. The next day Enrico came running to Carlos, more excited than ever before, his father had come home in exactly he way Carlos had described.
Several days later Carlos’ friend, Esme, insisted he come watch a group of women demonstrating in front of the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s seat of Government. There Carlos saw a group of fifty to sixty women, of different race and class, marching in a circle. They all carried signs with pictures of loved ones pasted on, and inscriptions that read, “ Where is Ruben Marcus? Where is Julia Obregon? Where have you taken my daughter and grandson? ” Carlos was very affected by the faces of he mothers who had lost their loved ones, and the faces of those missing and those dead. He was both fascinated and appalled as he watched the two orders of faces go by. The story of Enrico’s father and the mothers demonstrating revealed what he had been looking for what he would do....